The San Francisco-based conservation group Save the Redwoods League announced on Tuesday that they acquired two pieces of property between Redwood National Park and Humboldt Lagoon State Park. Their plan to donate the 90 acres from these and two other former private landholdings would create a contiguous protected area.
鈥淚t makes a land bridge, essentially, that goes from all the protected Redwood National Park property, all the way straight to the coast,鈥� says Becky Bremser, director of land protection for Save the Redwoods League. 鈥淭hese were kind of the missing pieces in between.鈥�
Purchasing the property had been in the works for over a decade, according to Bremser, She says the land is a 鈥渉igh priority鈥� for the National Park Service. Save the Redwoods League is expected to transfer the properties to the national park in 2020.
The League paid $655,000 for the Mistier and Nesset properties. Along with two other previously acquired pieces of land, they total 90 acres.
The goal of protecting this property as a corridor for wildlife species and to prevent future development is not shared by all residents in the nearby community of Orick, California.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a general feeling that Save the Redwoods League has bought interesting pieces [of land] that have no redwoods on them,鈥� says Donna Hufford, a board member of the Orick chamber of commerce who has lived in the 357-person community for 50 years.
鈥淲e have a very small land base here in our community and every potential house site that goes away means less people for our community,鈥� she says.
Bremser says the location between a state and national park make these 90 acres more valuable for conservation purposes than development.
The Save the Redwoods League says it has acquired and transferred more than 140 pieces of property since the 1920s to help build the Redwood National and State Parks.
